Do you know how to determine the size of a man's genitals? By the way he takes defeat (Note: never pay attention to another man's genitals unless he fucked your girlfriend) It doesn't matter that you have the most cunning submissions in the whole wide world and you

CLASSICAL SEQUENCES - JOSEKI The art of form is reflected in the theory of joseki, or the theory of “equal result”. In Chinese game theory, the Japanese word joseki is replaced by another term, dinshi, which means "to determine the form." Usually joseki

Go is played by two people (there is a variant for four players - rengo, where allies play with one color, a pair against a pair, as well as one-color or “white” Go, where both opponents play only with white stones, relying entirely on their own memory). The game is played on a one-color board, lined with vertical and horizontal lines. The game set also includes stone chips (180 white and 181 black) and bowls for storing them. In addition to the large tournament board 19x19, the standards are the “old” board 17x17, “study” 13x13 and student 9x9. In an informal setting, players can take a board of any size - 5x5, 7x7, 11x11, etc. up to 37x37 - neither the rules nor the tactics will need to be changed, although the strategy may change radically.

Chips in Go are traditionally called “stones” (Japanese: “ishi”). IN ancient China they were indeed carved from precious and semi-precious stones, bones, horns, and also made from glass and ceramics. Ancient stones found in burials are almost always green and red or brown, rather than white and black, and their shape is cone-shaped. Bowls for stones were made from ceramics, porcelain, stone, bamboo and expensive wood. Fields were often made of cloth or leather, although wooden and stone boards were also in use everywhere.

Japan is poor in mineral resources, and local craftsmen have found substitutes for ornamental stones in the form of black basalt slate from Wakayama Prefecture and hamaguri bivalve shells (Meretrix lusoria) from the Hyuga Bank (although in the photo above, it seems to me, a tridacna - D.S.).

A massive, very thick board-table, usually made of kaya wood (Torreia nutifera), is also becoming standard. It is in Japan that the game acquires its characteristic, recognizable golden, black and white asceticism.

New materials entailed a change in the shape of the chips, and then the entire game set. Stones that were traditionally made with a flat base in China became biconvex, lenticular in shape in Japan.



Playing with such convex stones is a special skill that also serves as an indicator of skill. There is a correct set of movements, including taking a stone from a bowl and specially intercepting it with the index (bottom) and middle finger (above), allowing you to place the stone at any point on the board with one blow without scattering others - such a grip and movement, as the Japanese believe, resembles sword blow.


When done correctly, all this looks like one movement (Japanese tradition generally pays a lot of attention to correct sequence actions, be it a tea ceremony, martial arts or Go). A confident, practiced blow with a stone forms a small hole on the goban, in which it remains standing (the trick is that kaya wood is elastic, and over time the hole straightens itself).

The main cost of an elite Go set is white stones, bowls and goban (basalt costs practically nothing, except for the work of a stone cutter).
Stones are classified according to thickness into 7 types - the thicker, the more expensive. The diameter of black stones is half a millimeter larger than white ones, since the black color visually reduces the size of the object, and white stones, with equal sizes, look a little larger. In addition, white stones are sorted according to the pattern of mother-of-pearl layers: straight “yuki” are most valued, followed by evenly curved “tsuki”, and finally, asymmetrical “jitsuyo”. On one side of the shell stone the pattern is usually denser, on the other it is sparse. Interestingly, this Japanese tradition, in turn, influenced China - among the stones there, opal ones, whose striped structure resembles a shell, are especially valued. High-end Chinese sets can be extremely beautiful, although these slippery stones can be difficult to play with.



However, in China they still make stones with one side convex and the other flat. The classic material for black stones is viscous glass like smalt, and for white stones it is translucent artificial marble yunzi; Such stones are greenish-black and milky-white when exposed to light.The material for this composite is mined in Yunnan province, and the recipe is kept secret. The process of making stones, which locals called "fused dry stone", dates back to the Tang Dynasty in the 1920scentury was lost and rediscovered only in the 60s.

You have to play with them more carefully - when strong impact stress on flat base is distributed unevenly (the finger presses on the center, and the blow falls on the edge), and the stone may split. The stones are coated with a special mineral oil, which gives the matte surface shine and depth (our people recommend TNK or Johnson’s Baby). The stones in the sets may vary slightly in size, which, however, also gives them a certain charm: the aesthetics of Go implies a harmonious balance between the complete similarity of the stones in the set andsubtle differences between each of them individually.
Since the forties of the 20th century, Korea has invaded the Japanese market with stones made of earthenware and viscous glass, so successful that Japan has completely curtailed own production cheap stones, preferring to buy Korean ones for club needs.

Finally, at the beginning of the 21st century, the Taiwanese standard, the so-called, became widespread. “Inga stones” are made of hard rubber - supervulcanized rubber with a metal weighting core, slightly flattened at the “poles” for better stability, and although their appearance is not so chic, convenience, strength and low price more than compensate for the shortcomings. Chinese stones are slightly larger in diameter than Japanese and Korean ones, and they, in turn, are larger than Ing stones.
Bowls are traditionally made from rare woods. Antique Chinese bowls are cylindrical in shape, with flat lids.

In a later tradition, the bowls become barrel-shaped, in the form of a flattened ball. It is customary to place cut stones in a convex, inverted lid.


Japanese bowls are not as steep-sided and slightly conical: their base is slightly wider than the top.Along with classic wooden and souvenir stone and lacquer bowls, there are wicker ones - made of straw or bamboo, and in Lately and plastic.

When playing according to Ing's rules, where the total number of stones is important, special bowls are used with a movable measuring mechanism in the lid, which allows you to instantly determine whether all the stones are in place or a few are missing: they are easily distinguished by their characteristic hexagonal shape.

The traditional Japanese goban is still lined using a samurai katana - the master makes a series of parallel cuts into which he rubs very thick paint, after which the surface is polished, so the markings of Japanese gobans are always embossed, “mortise” (photo on the left), and Korean and Chinese - flat, smooth (right).

Stones and gobans of ancient work are very much valued, since recently kaya and hamaguri have become endangered species, and gobans are increasingly made from wood of other species (spruce, beech, maple), which in Japan are called by the collective name “shin kaya” - “new kaya” " However, any goban still remains a piece of goods that not everyone can afford, so most players are content with thin boards or bamboo consumer goods.


Stones today are made from the shells of the same mollusk, only from the coast of Mexico (and even here craftsmen complain that the quality of Mexican shells is much lower than Japanese ones).


In all three countries, they produce portable Go kits made of plastic with built-in magnets and a field made of sheet rubber of any size and price category - from pocket-sized to large wall-mounted demonstration ones.
Recently, special relief boards have also been produced on which blind players and people with low vision can play. The black stones are smooth, while the white ones have raised marks.


To control time in Go, regular chess clocks were previously used. The player is given a certain period of time to play the game, after which the so-called“bayomi”: for each next move you have 30 seconds . The player has 5 such intervals, so he can let the flag fall 4 times (that is, run out of time), on the fifth time the time runs out and the game is considered lost. As long as the player spends less than 30 seconds on each move and presses the button at the right time, he can play virtually endlessly. It is customary to press the button with the same hand with which the player places the stone (the clock stands on one side of the board, and one player will have a time advantage if he gets into the habit of placing stones with one hand and hitting the clock with the other).
Today in tournaments they usually use"speakers" electronic clock of the Inga system (in the picture, this one, similar to a little car), with a voice warning function: when the player has the last 10 seconds left, a voice countdown begins: this tradition comes from the control generally accepted in professional Go, when the player records the moves and his assistant switches the clock (he also warns with his voice that time is running out).

Rules of the game

If the game is not a handicap, black makes the first move in Go. This is a long-standing Eastern tradition, according to which the black color of the attackers symbolizes aggressive, bad intentions. The traditional color drawing is called “nigiri” (from the Japanese “bun”, “lump”) and is based on the game of odd-even.

The player who got the bowl with white takes a handful of stones at random and places them on the board at once, at the same time the player with black places one or two stones nearby. If black guesses the parity of the stones laid out by the opponent, he is given the right to choose a color; if not, this right goes to his partner.

The first move is usually made to the upper right corner of the board (the opponent's left corner) - this “move to the heart” symbolizes the good intentions of the beginner. This is a completely optional old rule, but most players traditionally adhere to it. Next, players take turns placing a stone on any crosshair of the board, trying to build “walls” and fence off as many empty crossroads on the board as possible. You cannot place two stones in one move, but a player can pass at any time - such a pass is also considered a move. A stone placed on the board no longer moves and can only be cut down and removed from the board if the enemy surrounds it on all four sides with his stones or presses it against the wall.

The gameplay of Go is based on three simple principles:

Since stones in Go are placed not in cells, but on the crossroads of lines, each stone, when placed, borders on a maximum of four free neighboring intersections (on the edge of the board - three, in the corner - two). There are no diagonal connections in Go. As long as a stone or group of stones has contact with at least one free intersection, the stone or group “live”; as soon as all contacts are blocked by enemy stones or the edge of the board, they “die” and are immediately removed from the board. In Japanese, each such free crosshair next to a stone is called “dame” (“breath”). Placing a stone at a point that does not have “breaths” is prohibited. Encirclement is the basis of Go, but in reality it is a tactical technique, a threat, a pressure mechanism, and not at all the goal of the game, although it happens that a large group dies surrounded by an enemy (as a rule, when playing with equal players, this promises a loss).

2) Construction of the Fortress.

A stone placed on the board no longer moves (it can only be cut down and removed) and can escape encirclement in the only way - to develop into a large unkillable group. United stones can only be destroyed by surrounding them all at once. Each added allied stone increases such a group, it grows, grows loops, tentacles, takes up defense, counterattacks and, when the opportunity arises, forms closed voids inside itself (the so-called “eyes”), consisting of unoccupied points. An "eye" can have many empty intersections, but if there are no solid walls dividing it inside, it is still considered one "eye". A group that has two or more “eyes” cannot die: if the enemy tries to take one, such a group will have a second one, and since “suicide” moves are prohibited, the enemy ultimately cannot attack it at all, even if he surrounds it from everyone sides and pressed against the wall. Such an “immortal” group of stones is called a Fortress. The picture shows typical formations in the corners of the board: two two-eyed Fortresses of black (left) and one of white (right).

3) Division of territory.

When so many Fortresses are formed on the board that their walls are touching, and there is no place to build new ones, the opponents actually share the remaining empty space. This space can be small “eyes” at 2-3 intersections inside the fortresses, winding “corridors” and large “bags” at different ends of the board, as well as huge possessions (Japanese “moyo”) with guard stones strategically placed inside, ready to strangle any invasion (the point is that it is not enough to fence off the territory, you need to protect it, otherwise the enemy will land troops, build a fortress inside, and the points will go to him).
At the end, the game breaks down into areas that no longer affect each other. There are no large weak groups that are in danger. This is followed by filling out neutral points, exchanging captured stones and counting points to determine the winner. Each unoccupied point surrounded by a player brings him 1 point, each captured and killed enemy stone also gives 1 point.
There are situations when two or more groups of stones remain “live” in a state where none of the opponents can make a move on this “section of the front” without fear of being destroyed. This situation in Japanese is called “seki” (“obstacle”, in the figure on the left), when counting, all stones in this part of the board are considered live, and the points are considered to be drawn.

An interesting controversial moment may arise in the game in the form of mutual capture of a stone or group of stones (in Japanese “ko” - “eternity”; in the picture below). The rules prohibit such retakes, otherwise they will continue until the stones run out. A player in such a situation can cut down the enemy’s stone only after one move, which he must make to any other point on the board, or pass. The enemy is obliged to do the same. Co-fighting is a complex tactical technique when both players choose, for “distracting” moves, poses that are dangerous for the enemy (co-threats), to which the latter, willy-nilly, is obliged to respond. In some cases, life depends on the outcome of a co-fight large groups, but more often this happens at the end of the game, when there is no big advantage and there is a fight for every point.

Japanese and Chinese rules Go is slightly different from each other, but the differences relate mainly to scoring and some controversial issues. After 1960, several new sets of rules appeared: AGA (American Go Association) rules, Ing rules and simplified Ing rules, New Zealand rules, as well as Tromp-Taylor rules. All of them are based on the Chinese scoring system and are characterized by some gaming subtleties (for example, the Inga rules allow “suicide” moves, which can change the situation when playing some groups).

To indicate moves, previously only numerical notation was used (13-8, 2-6, etc.), today “chess”, alphanumeric notation is more often used: numbers from 1 to 19 - along the vertical board and letters of the Latin alphabet from “a " to "t" horizontally (however, there is no "i" in this row to avoid confusion due to its similarity to "j"). The graphic record of the game (Japanese “kifu”) looks like a lined diagram of the board, on which moves are depicted in black and white circles, indicating the number of each.

You don’t have to draw circles; in this case, players simply write down their moves and their opponent’s moves in ink different color. In both Renju and Go, continuous numbering of moves is adopted, that is, the first move (black) is marked as No. 1, the second move (white) - No. 2, etc. No erasures are allowed; if a stone is placed in the place of a cut one, a mark is made at the bottom of the sheet, say: “123 = 30” (i.e. move No. 123 is made where stone No. 30 appears on the diagram). Masters and experts read kifu very quickly, but for a novice player this is a very difficult task, and it is not difficult to understand the order of moves itself - the system is intuitively simple, it is more difficult to imagine the emptiness in place of the stones placed later.

Since black goes first, he is considered to have an initial advantage of several points. This problem became especially acute at the end of the 20th century with the development of Go theory and the emergence of new openings. It got to the point that only black players began to win at tournaments of strong masters. To even out the balance, the “komidashi rule” (colloquially “komi”) was introduced in the 19th century, according to which whites receive compensation of 2.5 points before the start of the game. Due to the fragmentation of Komi, there are no draws in Go: in any case, one player will have an extra half a point; A draw is possible either in a student game, or by mutual agreement of the players. Over time, the rules have been revised several times, and today the size of the komi is 5.5 points in Japan, Korea and China, 6.5 in Korea (more recently), 7 in New Zealand and 7.5 in Taiwan, where they play according to Inga's rules. “Free Komi” is also practiced, when players before the game arrange a kind of “trade”, taking turns increasing the size of the Komi until the opponent agrees. The catch is that the player who offered the highest accepted compensation then plays black.

A master and a novice player can easily compete at the Go board. The handicap that a strong player gives to a weak one is intended to equalize their chances and make the game harmonious. The simplest is the refusal of a handicap, when a strong player plays white with a Komi of half a point or even with the opposite, minus Komi. Increasing the handicap comes down to placing handicap stones (two or more). There is a classic handicap, when stones are placed at strictly defined “star” points, and a free one (in common parlance, “Chinese”), when a strong player gives a weak player several moves forward, and he himself passes each time. An experienced player usually knows his strength and can calculate how many handicap stones to ask from a strong player or give to a weak one in order to play on equal terms.
With rules like these, it's hard to believe that Go is considered the most difficult game in the world. General principles and the tactical techniques of Go are simple and uncomplicated, but require constant rethinking during the game. There are no figures in Go, one stone is no different from another, the only thing that matters is the place it occupies and the shape that the stones form. However, in their collision and interaction, a complex architecture is revealed. Assessing the individual and cumulative potential of one’s own and other people’s formations, revealing and realizing it and preventing the enemy from doing so, setting priorities when attacking, defending and seizing new territories are the most difficult tasks in themselves, and, in addition, they also have to be solved simultaneously.

In such conditions, everyone chooses a strategy “according to growth”: beginners start chasing individual stones, more experienced players build outposts, make forays and start local battles, but real masters think in larger categories than a banal fight in the corner or capturing a single chip, and already on initial stage starting global strategic planning. In fact, Go is a kingdom-founding game where everyone builds castles, draws borders, and ends up taking as much “land” as they can hold.

Unlike chess or checkers, Go does not have established “winning scenarios” that allow you to play according to a pattern. The level of high creativity and tactical improvisation, which in chess is accessible only to real masters, is experienced by a Go player already at the stage of catching his very first pebble. Calculation, of course, is also important, but true understanding of Go lies on the border between conscious and subconscious perception. In the famous anime “Hikaru and Go” there is a scene when a boy is perplexed: “I won! How did I do this?..”

Even in ancient times, during the To Dynasty, a Chinese official of the highest rank, Osekinin, formulated the “Ten Commandments of Go,” which convey the essence of the teaching. These commandments have not lost their relevance to this day; they are:

1. “He who strives too much to win will not win.”

2. “If you invade the enemy’s sphere of influence, be more lenient.”

3. “Before you attack, look at yourself.”

5. “Give a little, take a lot.”

6. “If there is danger, don’t hesitate to give.”

7. “Refrain, don’t waste your time.”

8. “When the enemy attacks, be sure to respond.”

9. “If the enemy has strengthened, strengthen yourself.”

10. “If you are hopelessly isolated, choose the peaceful path.”

First, players divide the territory in the corners of the board, then on the sides, and only then in the center (no one divides the sky without first dividing the land). It is very important to recognize when one phase of the game replaces another, to catch the moment when the draft section is over and the groups have gained strength - such a player seizes the tempo (in Japanese terminology - “gets sente”) and with the first move into free territory sets up new possessions. It is incredibly important to understand to what extent you can yield to the onslaught of your opponent, and when it is necessary to resist: an abandoned, unfinished situation in the corner or on the side is fraught with the loss of a group or even a fortress, or even an entire possession.

I will describe a case from my practice. I taught a ten-year-old girl who could not grasp the principles of Go and, instead of redistributing spheres of influence, arranged endless tactical fights. Imagine, I told her, that there is a delicious cake from which they cut you a piece. You ate some and suddenly saw your rival reaching into your saucer with a spoon and stealing pieces. How to fix the situation? The first answer was, naturally, to defend her piece, the second was to eat off her friend’s piece in revenge... But it never occurred to her to cut off another large piece of the cake for herself!
The analogy turned out to be successful. Indeed, sharing and not fighting is the principle of Go. Sooner or later, the player realizes that he is losing due to the desire to take away the apple core from his opponent. Mastery comes with a deep understanding of the general nature of harmonious structures, development skills, effort optimization, planning and arrangement, which ultimately extend to any life situation. And when the players begin to divide the “basket of apples”, and by the end of the game there are only “apples” on the board, not cores, and the difference is half a gram, this is Go. As a consequence, where chess ultimately produces a kshatriya, an uncompromising fighter and commander, Go produces a wise ruler and organizer.
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(c) Dmitry Skiryuk

Every day I give brief consultations to someone who is going to make a Go board themselves, sometimes I buy “incredible boards” or exchange them for normal ones, I have, in a sense, formed a collection of “human and non-human” Go boards...

Great idea, don't you think?

I’ll tell you straight - the first boards, and often a batch of boards, always go to waste, and the money goes there too. But this does not mean that you should not try, it does not mean...
I propose, turning to the experience of Goam, to pay attention to:
1. on the idea of ​​a line (this is the first IDEA of GO)
2. on the idea of ​​a point (this is the second IDEA OF GO)
3. on the combination of these ideas and, accordingly, the sizes of the line and hosi...

Goama deliberately does not provide sizes in this article, because size is secondary, although very important. A board without an idea is much worse than a board without dimensions. So, more details...

Poor hand marking is much cheaper than machine marking, but masterful hand marking can be much more expensive.
But then the master's HAND should be visible. If it IS, then you can’t hide it. After this, the question of price may not arise. Someone is willing to pay, for example.
But the idea is the most valuable thing. Even taken by itself.
Even taken from a photo.

One might wonder: why the katana itself, why the sword?
Why, knowing the Japanese passion for technology, was not a special marking tool? At least for expensive boards?
And then we will get the correct answer - why. And then you can understand the idea of ​​manual markings, the idea of ​​an expensive board, and the idea of ​​a Go line. Right? In this way you can understand what the Japanese master will not tell even under torture

With pathos:

1. I am no longer interested in the price of a Go board. I don't want to buy based on price. Now I'm only interested in how the Go board is made.

2. I am no longer interested in what the board is made of. Now I'm only interested in how the Go board is made.

3. I am ready to pay more for any Go board if it is signed on the reverse side, for example like this - Master First Name Last Name (of this master), once again - not just First Name, Last Name, but Master First Name Last Name.

Do we at RossGo have enough money for a board made by a Russian master?

I'm afraid that's enough for now. While Go boards from a Russian manufacturer cannot be expensive:

1. Rossmaster is still saving on material, reluctantly finding dry material. He does not have a moisture meter and does not carry one in his pocket.

2. Rossmaster won’t be able to find it yet correct thickness a line that is not contained in the number of millimeters
3. he does not understand the very idea of ​​manual marking, he does not push through the lines after marking with a pencil, and he does not clean the pencil with an eraser properly.

4. he goes line over line, thinking that it is unnoticeable.

5. he does not understand what the thickness of the board should be, he does not understand the board module and has no idea what the board module is

6. A 19 by 19 line grid is a rectangle. This rectangle also has its own idea. For example, it must be positioned according to the direction of the fibers.
7. he does not understand the size of the Hoshi point and its purpose
8. he will not be able to understand the sizes of the fields and their ratio, considering this to be unimportant
9. he will “immediately work on the material”
10. he will choose varnish thoughtlessly, apply varnish with the wrong brush, the room will be dusty
11. he doesn’t know how many layers of varnish are needed
12. he will not be able to fulfill all the nuances of the board, because he has never had an expensive board, did not choose it and did not buy it with his own money

13. The Go board should be beautiful

14. the board must be a finished thing, completeness must be visible to the consumer

...What are we actually talking about here?

We're talking about what people in the regions can do if they want to make money by creating truly valuable products.
This refers to people whose “hands are in the right place.”
I want to say that a person who is able to make a very good Go board should not be afraid that there will be no one to buy it.
Will. Although the buyer will be picky, and it will be difficult to surprise him.
He won’t be able to slip in a “non-product.” You can't give him bullshit.
He won't look at the price, but he will look at what Goama was trying to list. He reserves the right to inspect, but not buy, an imperfect item. He will also look at the fact that he did not list Goam. What he kept silent about or didn’t even know, didn’t guess. But this, for example, will already be on the board.

We believe that Goama is announcing a competition for a Go board.

“Go creates a certain image in the soul. And the particles of this image are all the details of the setting - the goban, stones, room, players, books, etc. Go should not be “a logical game that develops ingenuity,” but something that touches the soul - beauty, the quality of things, the quality of relationships, its very atmosphere” - Alexey Khovanets, Vladivostok.

Second way.

If you were able to organize ten people around you who are passionate about Go, then you will already have a good set, it will just appear to you almost by itself. If you organized 100 amateurs, you will have basalt, kaya and Mexican shell stones, 1000 people - Japanese shell stones, etc.
This path is not difficult, but it requires some effort, soul and time.

That is, organizing your own Go club is equivalent to making a good board.
This is another way for people with an average level of wealth. No one will be able to allocate several thousand from their budget for an expensive set, there simply won’t be such an expense item, it will simply be “not needed.”
The set appears from an abundance of people and for the people who are many around you, IT COMES BY ITSELF, IT BRINGS TO YOU GO, if you communicate with this GO, hear its whisper, convey its whisper to others.
The truth of Goama is that Goama was able not only to imagine such a path, but also to walk it. Even more. Now others may follow Goam's path.

The design of Go sets is rooted in tradition and has evolved over centuries. The dimensions of the boards, stones and bowls, the materials from which they are made have not changed for a long time. Modern technologies had little impact on traditional methods of making high-quality gobans. Best boards They are still made by hand by skilled craftsmen who take over the skills of their fathers. Family traditions stored for many generations.

The Go board is not exactly square. Standard size 45.4 cm long and 42.4 cm wide. As a result, the stones slightly touch each other in the horizontal direction, but the monotony of a perfect square is broken. Players usually increase this effect by placing stones not exactly at the intersections of the lines. Sitting at the board during a game, the player looks at the position from an angle.

The thickness of the board depends on the taste of the owner. The traditional goban has a thickness of 15 to 19 centimeters. Standard height the legs are 12.1 cm, and the total height of the goban is at least 27 cm.

The diameter of the black stones is 2.1 cm, and the white ones are 2 cm. The white ones are slightly smaller to compensate for the optical illusion, as a result of which black appears smaller in size to a person than white. The shape of the stones is complex, the thickness can vary depending on taste, from 5 to 12.8 mm. The most common sets use stones with a thickness of 8.4 to 9.8 mm. Thick stones are awkward, and thin stones are not as pleasant to place on the board.

Excellent Go boards are made from the glossy, textured wood of the kaya tree. This yellow wood is ideal for gobans because its color harmonizes with the color of black and white stones, and because it produces a lively sound when the stone is placed on the board. Kaya wood is durable and its color deepens and intensifies over time.

The quality and price of kaya gobans depends on many factors, the most important of which is the cut of the tree. There are many ways to cut a tree trunk, each of which creates its own characteristic pattern of the surface, ends and sides of the goban. The best gobans have a straight pattern on the playing surface and at the ends. It is achieved by a wood cutting method called tenchimasa. These gobans cost between 6 and 20 million yen.

Goban masame is also quite expensive. These boards have an uneven texture at the end, as can be seen in the photo below. This cut also provides a straight texture on the playing surface. The price of high-quality goban masame starts from 2 million yen and reaches six million.

One of the reasons for the high price of these gobans is the age of the tree. To obtain a workpiece of the required size, you need to use a tree over 700 years old. From one tree it is possible to make only one or two tenchimasa boards and a few masame boards. Which is very little.

The cheapest kaya wood gobans are itame gobans. The picture shows that the playing surface has an irregular structure. From an aesthetic point of view, this is not desirable, and as a result the price is much lower. Starts at 400,000 yen. Several itame gobans can be made from one tree.

A player who wants to play a beautiful kaya wood goban at home, but cannot pay such a high price, uses a 5 cm thick kaya board. These boards are usually made from two or three pieces of wood, skillfully glued together. Excellent surface texture is achieved by careful selection of the texture of individual bars. Such boards (one of them can be seen in the photo) cost about 80,000 yen.

Due to the high price of kaya boards, boards made of katsura wood (cercidiphyllum japonicum, Japanese crimson) have become widespread. Boards made from this wood have a very reasonable price and for this reason they are played on in clubs. Relatively new to manufacture inexpensive boards began to use wood from trees common in North America and Indonesia. Although it is not at all necessary to play wooden boards Players believe that they get more pleasure from the game if they hear the sound of resonating wood when placing a stone on the board.

Black stones are made from slate mined in Wakayama Prefecture. Such stones are relatively cheap. It is the white stones that make up the basis of the cost of a Go set. Traditionally, they are made from the shells of a mollusk native to Hyuga and Miyazaki prefectures. Like kaya wood, these shells are rare and expensive. Nowadays, white stones are made from the shells of mollusks living in Mexico. They are not as rare, but just as well suited. As a result, the cost of the kit beautiful stones for go decreased several times. However, depending on the thickness of the stones, a set of stones with white stones made from Mexican clam shells can cost between 16,000 and 250,000 yen. Most club players use impact-resistant glass and plastic stones.

As with wood, the surface texture of shell stones is of great aesthetic importance. The smoother the lines and the more often they are spaced, the better.

Stones are stored in round wooden bowls with lids. The most expensive bowls are made from beautiful mulberry tree, which grows only on the island of Miyakejima in Tokyo. A pair of these bowls can cost hundreds of thousands of yen. More common bowls are made from cheaper woods such as keyaki, a beautiful yellow wood that matches the color of the kaya. Chestnut and plastic bowls are most often used in clubs.

How to play go

Go is played by two people on a board with a set of black and white round pieces called stones. The complete set of stones consists of 181 black and 180 white stones. A standard full size board has 19 longitudinal and 19 transverse lines. The number of stones corresponds to the number of intersections of these lines.

The goal of the Go game is to capture territory, which creates many analogies with wars on earth. There is both border fighting and invasion of enemy territory, enemy forces can be surrounded and captured, groups of stones can be cut off, pinned and cornered, diversionary maneuvers and reconnaissance are used. At the same time, this is construction. Players are trying to create good designs, effective and strong positions. Strong players arrange their stones in visually appealing shapes.

Go game rules

Although a 19x19 board is standard, beginners are encouraged to start learning the rules with a 9x9 board. With boards this size you can start explaining the rules.

Rule 1: Pariah starts with an empty board.
Rule 2: Black goes first, after which White and Black take turns making moves.
Rule 3. The move consists of placing a stone at an unoccupied intersection of the board lines.

D.1 and D.2 show typical opening moves on a 9x9 board. On Diagram 1, Black made the first move at the top right. White responded at the bottom left. In Diagram 2, Black played 3 in the bottom right, marking the sphere of influence on the right side of the board. White placed stone 4 at the top left, outlining his sphere of influence on the left.

Clarification

Once a stone is placed on the board, it is not moved or removed from the board until the end of the game. We will look at capturing stones in the following articles. Stones cannot be moved across the board. With the exception of a few cases, you can go to any free intersection that you like, even to the extreme line of the board and to the very corner.

Go game. famous players.

Kitani Minoru, along with Go Seigen, was one of the giants of Go from 1930 to 1950. From the beginning of his career he showed great promise and soon acquired the nickname Kaidomaru - gifted. He became the first dan in 1924 and by 1935 had reached the seventh dan, an unprecedented rise at the time. In 1938 he won a tournament for the right to play Honinbo Shusai in his last game. Kitani won five points, and the game was based on the novel Meijin by Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata.

In addition to his success in tournaments, Kitani, together with Go Seigen, improved the theory of Go by creating the “new fuseki strategy.” He also did a lot to develop the theory of joseki.

But Kitani's greatest legacy was the many students he trained. After World War II, Kitani founded a school called the Kitani dojo. He combed the country in search of talented youth and attracted them to full-time classes at his school. Every day these young people played Go and analyzed games under the supervision of Kitani and his older students.

These efforts began to bear fruit in 1971, when one of his students, Yoshio Ishida, at the age of 21, won the title of Honinbo from the then reigning champion Rin Kaiho. Rin was born in China and studied under Go Seigen. The next five years were the years of Isis. He won the Honinbo title four more times and finally took the Meijin title from Rin, becoming the third Meijin-Honinbo of the modern era.

Ishida became the first-born of a new type of player that the Kitani school gave birth to. He was almost invincible, winning 30 games in a row in the qualifying tournament, calm under pressure, calmly calculating positions. For his calculation abilities, Yose was nicknamed "Isis the Computer". Rin had all this too, but Ishida was head and shoulders above.

Go rules

Taking rule

Rule 4. A stone or directly connected group of stones of the same color is captured and removed from the board when all intersections of board lines immediately adjacent to the stone (group) are occupied by stones of the opposite color.

D.1. White stones occupied three of the four points adjacent to the black stone, i.e. three ladies of this stone. In this case, they say that the black stone is in atari.

D 2. White captures the black stone, taking the last queen, and removes the stone from the board.

D.3. The result of White's last move. Captured stones are set aside and stored until the end of the game. They will be taken into account when calculating the result.

Stones can be grabbed both at the edge of the board and in the corner, as shown in the diagram.

Two black stones connected. They are also in atari. White can capture them with move 1.

This diagram shows a connected group of five black stones that can be captured.

Suicide moves are prohibited. You cannot make a move that closes the last queen of your stones. In the diagram on the right, the two white stones each have one queen at point 1-1. White's move 1 is prohibited, because white stones lose their last dame.

A suicide move leading to the capture of enemy stones is allowed. If White plays 1 on the central diagram, then the black stones on the right have the dame, and the white stone has no dame. At the same time, the one who made the move captures the enemy’s stones. IN in this case White captures two black stones.

Tasks

In these three problems, find a move for Black that captures some of White's stones.

Virtual whiteboard

Try solving these problems on a virtual whiteboard. Move the pointer to the point on the board where you need to make the next move, and click the left mouse button.

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